Weather could delay sailor's rescue

The bow of Orion as we left Antarctica to attend to the rescue Photo: Ian Lloyd Neubauer

THE life of a solo round-the-world sailor is balancing on a knife-edge as a cruise liner battles wild winds and seas to reach the stricken sailor.

Adrift in a life raft after abandoning his yacht, the French national Alain Delord sent a distress call on Friday, prompting the MV Orion to change course and steam to the rescue.

The Orion was scheduled to intercept Mr Delord’s life raft at 8:45pm on Sunday but deteriorating weather meant the yachtsman could spend a third night adrift in freezing conditions.

Don McIntrye, the Orion Expedition Leader, said the Orion was working with the Rescue Centre Coordinator in Canberra.‘‘They have two aircraft in the sky, a C130 Hercules which is flying at about 250 feet,’’ he said. ‘‘It just flew overhead and advised us of the conditions at the scene of the life raft.’’

Mr McIntrye said the crew would rescue Mr Delord using either a Zodiac or a winch, but he would prefer to use the Zodiac as there was less chance of things going wrong.

‘‘I hope it is the Zodiac, but conditions for it’s use are at the limit. There are 3 metre seas and 20-25 knot winds. It is probably workable at the moment but we need to wait and see till we get there. The captain will make the final decision.”

He said the rescue was getting a lot of attention in Australia and overseas.

‘‘Our Facebook page is getting 300 visitors a minute,’’ he said.

The ship’s captain, Mike Taylor, has just made an announcement over the ship PA system, telling passengers they are about 20 minutes away from the last reported position of the life raft.

"We don’t have him on visual or radar, but we do have two planes in the sky keeping a close eye on him so I am confident we will find him soon. One of the planes, the Hercules, is going to drop smoke floats to lead is right to him," he said.

“As we approach the raft, we are going to slow down and turn off the ship’s stabilizers and the ship will roll. Make sure everything is secure. If you are in any way concerned about the movement, the best thing to do is lies down in your bed. After that, we are going to try to get the ship in a position that is stable to launch the Zodiac.”

He said until last night the Orion had been going at maximum speed trying to reach Mr Delord, about 13.5 knots.

‘‘Since then the swell has increased from three to four metres and, more significantly, it has changed direction. Waves that were previously coming from behind the ship are now coming at us head on and we are pitching quite a bit. It’s slowed us down to about 12.5 knots and we could slow down further still.’’

Once they reach Mr Delord the crew would have a 45 minute window to rescue him before nightfall.

‘‘[After that] We can’t even tether him to the ship,’’ said Captain Taylor. ‘‘The only thing we’ll be able to do is stand off and wait till the morning.’’

The mood among the cruise ship’s 91 passengers was upbeat, despite having their cruise to Antarctica and the Sub-Antarctic Islands cut short by the rescue effort.

‘‘I’m excited to see this guy safe. Everyone will be relieved once this rescue is completed safely,’’ said a passenger, Kellee Cruse of Sydney.

The Orion’s chief medical officer, trauma specialist Chris Bulstrode, increased Mr Delord’s chances of survival after hearing he had been transferred to a new life raft with food and water dropped to him on Saturday night.

‘‘He will be having a miserable time in there,’’ Dr Bulstrode said. ‘‘Those rafts are very humid inside and his skin will be rubbed and chafed. He will also be very tired but I suspect not much more will be wrong with him.’’

Dr Bulstrode, who has experience treating trauma victims in Gaza and Afghanistan, said the Orion was equipped with sufficient medical equipment should Mr Delord’s situation prove to be more critical.

‘‘I would not give him a 100 per cent chance of making it. That would be a crazy thing to do,’’ Dr Bulstrode said.

‘‘But I’m willing to put a positive spin on things and say his chances have leapt up and now sit in the high 90s ... if we can find him, that is.’’